Sunday, 5 June 2011

Raja Nazrin Shah Masters & International Open Chess Championship 2011

Looking back at how successful the KL Open has been over the last three years, I was talking to KLCA President Dato' Sri Edmund Santhara whose Masterskill Education Group has long sponsored the event and after having made the decision to rename the event after our patron Raja Nazrin Shah who has supported us year in year out, I thought that we should take a hard look at our local chess scene and see if indeed the current format made any sense.

Frankly, I had delayed the KL Open this year as along as possible to see if indeed there would be a Malaysian Open and with three months to go simply had to make an announcement but now it seems it is on again and that can only be good news for the local chess community and so I do want to congratulate the man I correctly called "an embarrassment and a real disgrace" over his antics leading up and during the FIDE election for successfully getting the old man to fork out once again.

So we have decided to step back as we are no longer needed to help fill in a vacuum as we were asked to, and with freedom from this so called responsibility as an affiliate of the MCF that has the financial means, the Raja Nazrin Shah Masters & International Open Chess Championship can now take shape in the form as we have always wanted it.

We will therefore have a Masters, a 10 player, 9 round GM event and hope one of our IMs/FMs will step forward and ask for the place I will reserve for a Malaysian (as long as I can) together with a somewhat "downgraded" Open - see www.klchess.com - in the sense that while it is still an international titled and rated event with GMs and IMs playing, we will no longer restrict but encourage participation from lowly and even unrated players (except when they are juniors who come with trainers or parents who are known troublemakers!).